#LearningMatters Blog: Studying for a Masters while working at NOE CPC
As part of #LearningMatters month at NOE CPC, we have been speaking to some of our colleagues who have been supported to access learning while they work.
Among our pool of studious colleagues is Joe Speed, our Data Services Manager, who has almost completed his two-year master’s course.
“I am studying for a master’s degree in Digital Technology Specialist Data Analytics from Sheffield Hallam University. I accessed this course directly from the university, after my previous line manager completed his course and the university asked if anyone else would be interested in the same programme. He thought it was an ideal fit for me and my career progression, so put my name forward.
“During my two-year course, I have attended classes at university, completed coursework and assessments and have written a dissertation. The course will culminate this autumn with an end-point assessment in which I will present what I have learned over the last two years to an independent panel of assessors.
“I have been allocated a working day each week in which I have been able to focus entirely on my studies. I have been fully supported by my previous and current line managers, both of whom have completed master’s degrees while at NOE CPC. The organisation made sure to give me the time to focus on that learning.
“During the course, I have been learning statistical and mathematical models which I will be able to apply to software that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI), something that it being used increasingly across the healthcare sector to analyse and process data, including within NOE CPC. I have been looking at how we can teach computers to look at disparate data across multiple sources and how those computers can be used to understand patterns in them.
“I have learned a new coding language and have also learned management and leadership skills, which have been useful to me as I took up a new role as a manager during my degree.
“In my dissertation, I looked at the quality of data at NOE CPC and how it is stored and analysed. It helped me gain a better understanding of how we could analyse data in different ways, such as how hospital trusts spend their money and where they spend it.
“Balancing this with a new role, time limitations outside of work and a new child has been very difficult. I also lost my father close to the end of the first year of the programme which made the last set of coursework assessments that year quite difficult to work through. What has helped me is the commitment from my manager [Ian Andrews, Technical Director] and NOE CPC to having a dedicated day's worth of hours each week to allow me to work on apprenticeship matters. I have broken those 7.5 hours into 3 sections over the course of a couple of days to help me focus, and that has really helped.
“The learnings I have taken away from my degree have supported me greatly. They have given me a lot more insight into certain data analyses that we can do within the business, maximising the potential ways we can support our customers with their spend.
“When I have completed my degree, I will be able to apply all of that learning to my day-to-day work, further maximising the potential we have in the software and programs we already use.”